Return To The City On A Hill

Today we will exercise one of the most fundamental of the freedoms granted us by the greatest assemblage of intellect in human history. Today, thanks to the foresight and forbearance of our Founding Fathers, we rise together to choose the path we shall collectively — and individually — follow into the future.

In the largest cities and the smallest villages, we will stride confidently into our polling places and offer our electoral endorsements to those whom we deem worthy to do our bidding as our proxies in city council chambers, State legislatures, Governor’s mansions and the Nation’s capital.

Despite the increasingly shrill calls from the left for a halt to the intellectual and industrial progress which has fueled this magnificent Nation’s greatness for nearly two and a half centuries, today we can add our voices to the mellifluous chorus of those who have gone before us on behalf of those who will come behind us. We can join hands and call out across the fruited plains: Do not despair, brothers and sisters of this American family. The greatest days of the greatest Nation the Almighty has ever allowed to grace His green earth lie eternally ahead.

Even the most beloved President was merely a man. Without the blessing of the electorate, his most noteworthy accomplishments would have existed only in his imagination. The finest Senator was simply an aspirant to eminence without a collective nod of the peoples’ heads at the ballot box, consigned to the humdrum routine of daily life. The Governors, State legislators, mayors and even dog catchers who climbed the heights of distinction were faces in the crowd without the acclaim afforded to them by the people whom they served.

Today, amidst the endless line of applicants and also-rans who have spent time and money begging for electoral scraps from the peoples’ table, we have the joy of granting the worthy our assent and barring the unworthy from our corridors of authority. Today, we remind them — at the loftiest moments of their political existence, from city council chambers to the U.S. Senate chamber itself: The power is ours to lend you. The clout you crave is ours to bestow…or deny. Despite the gripes and groans of those who have lost faith in the American system of government, thus has it always been, and thus should it always be.

I often marvel at those who would sell their vote so casually; whether for cash, for patronage, or empty promises of governmental largesse. The idea of offering up that greatest reminder of personal authority over even the most grotesquely greedy, the most fanatically fatuous and the most stupefying and smug office-seekers for the promise of a potential plum is anathema to me. On this one day, no matter how humble our circumstances, we can tell those who yearn to be our masters: The Obamas, Pelosis, Reids and Rangels — that even in the lofty heights of electoral dominion — WE are the masters of America’s fate, the Captains of the National soul.

Office-seekers: You are ours. You serve us. The mandates you claim, the authority you seek, even the remuneration you may receive is all contingent upon you performing the duties of your employment to our satisfaction.

My fellow Americans: Today we are the hope of the nation. On behalf of those who came before us, many of whom sacrificed their very lives on the altar of American virtue, I urge you to remember the promise of an American future they passed down to you. I urge you, on behalf of those yet to come, to consider the sacred liberty entrusted to us all, and consider which among those who clamor for your ballot is likely to preserve it for future generations.

Under the watchful eyes of your fathers and sons, those who have passed and those yet to present themselves; indeed, under the gaze of Almighty God himself:

Vote.

And if that soaring requiem for the American Dream didn’t move you, think of it this way:

You might as well vote. Most of the Democrats are going to do it at least twice.

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Ben Crystal

is a 1993 graduate of Davidson College and has burned the better part of the last two decades getting over the damage done by modern-day higher education. He now lives in Savannah, Ga., where he has hosted an award-winning radio talk show and been featured as a political analyst for television. Currently a principal at Saltymoss Productions—a media company specializing in concept television and campaign production, speechwriting and media strategy—Ben has written numerous articles on the subjects of municipal authoritarianism, the economic fallacy of sin taxes and analyses of congressional abuses of power.

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